As the Nation Moves Left, John McCain Is America’s New Most Hated Senator

 

A new PPP poll has found that Sen. John McCain has passed Mitch McConnell to be become America’s least popular U.S. senator.

PPP summarized what can only be described as a boatload of bad news for McCain, “PPP’s newest Arizona poll finds that John McCain is unpopular with repugicans, Democrats, and independents alike and has now become the least popular Senator in the country. Only 30% of Arizonans approve of the job McCain is doing to 54% who disapprove. There isn’t much variability in his numbers by party- he’s at 35/55 with repugicans, 29/53 with Democrats, and 25/55 with independents, suggesting he could be vulnerable to challenges in both the primary and general elections the next time he’s up.”
McCain’s approval rating of 30% back home in Arizona means that he is 2% less popular than Mitch McConnell is in Kentucky. McCain’s disapproval rating (54%) is six points lower than McConnell’s (60%), but he is also less popular than the fading fast repugican Senate leader. The fact that McCain is only six points more popular with repugicans (35%) than he is with Democrats (29%) signals that the end is near for self styled Arizona maverick.
McCain is likely to share a similar problem with McConnell. The repugicans in both states think that their incumbent senior citizen senators are too liberal, and compromise too much with Obama. I suspect that the folks back home have also grown sick of their senator’s constant chasing of television cameras. McCain is a virtual weekly guest on the Sunday morning shows, and the television networks have gone completely over the top by featuring him as a guest eleven times in the past week.
The Arizona senator has cultivated a press corps that fawn all over him so at first glance it surprising that he is the least popular senator in the country. Beneath the media hype, is a senator that has not done much for years in the Senate. Since losing the 2008 election, McCain has mostly used the Senate as a glorified retirement home and perch to get on national television often and frequently.
Arizona is shifting away from repugicans, and more towards being a 2016 presidential swing state. As Arizona changes, one of the first things it may do is send John McCain into retirement.